Serious Moonlight(55)

“No idea,” I said, watching Octavia suction the headless shrimp bodies as they fell into the water. “But I’m starting to think the animal rights group may have some valid points. Giant Pacific Octopi are intelligent. Did you know that they can solve mazes quickly and unscrew jar lids in order to get to food? Octavia is probably bored out of her mind in this tank.”

“Joseph said the last Octavia stopped eating and hid in the main cave before they replaced her. Maybe she missed the freedom of the ocean and was upset about being taken away from her other eight-legged friends. Maybe she had trust issues.”

I flicked a glance at him. “Maybe.”

We both watched this Octavia curl a suckered arm around one of the shrimp.

“S-o-o-o,” he said. “I’ve got to take the van on a food run for Melinda. Her feet are swollen, and she can’t leave the back office. So, she asked if I’d pick up Chinese.”

“Justin will log your trip in the system,” I told him, motioning to the floating supervisor who was coming to fill in for me. “He’s relieving me for my lunch break.”

“Right now?” Daniel asked.

“Yes.”

“Come with me,” Daniel whispered.

My pulse sped. I blinked down at him, then glanced at Justin.

“It won’t take longer than your break,” Daniel added. “Ride along with me.”

“In the hotel van?” I whispered back. “Is that allowed?”

“It’s not not allowed. I’d like to talk to you in private—not in the middle of the lobby where nosy Chuck and everyone else in the Cascadia can hear. Please?”

“All right,” I said. “Meet you out front.”

In a daze, I closed the hatch on Octavia’s tank and hurried to the back to wash my shrimpy hands and clock out. A minute later, I was hopping into the hotel van with Daniel. It was bizarre to be alone with him again. And good. Too good. My heart started hoping again, and then that terrible longing-pining-aching feeling fired up, and it was so much worse, because it was happening while he was sitting next to me.

Sitting but not talking.

Not really. After we’d covered how our nights were going—uneventful—and that we both didn’t sleep well—he yawned three times—an awkward silence congealed between us, and all my hopeful feelings retreated. I waited for him to say something, but he didn’t.

“I thought you wanted a private conversation,” I finally said, unable to endure the strained silence any longer. “If you were going to keep ignoring me, it would have been easier back in the hotel.”

“Me? Me?”

“You,” I confirmed.

“You hid from me at the start of our shift!”

“You told me to have a good night!”

He looked askance at me. “What?”

“You’re confusing me. I thought our date last night was good. I thought it was . . . at least going okay. You’re the one who wanted a do-over. You asked me out. And I don’t know what’s happening with us now. I didn’t sleep all day because I was waiting to hear from you, like, to say something—anything! One minute you’re kissing me like you meant it—”

“I did mean it!”

“—and the next minute you’re telling me good-bye like I was your nerdy little cousin from far away, whom you’d never see again, but people were watching, so best be polite and give a platonic peck on the cheek.”

“My cousins are all brats, so I damn sure wouldn’t be giving them a fucking peck on the cheek, just for the record,” he said. “And second, if you want to know the truth—”

“That’s all I’m asking.”

“—then, okay. I was upset about seeing people from school. And freaking out that, hey, if they were acting that way, how are you going to act? Maybe once you got to know all my deep, dark secrets, you’d think I wasn’t worth the trouble.”

I wanted to ask exactly what that trouble was. But he was speaking as if he were talking to himself, animated, wrist slung over the wheel, simultaneously steering the van while flicking his hand up to gesture. “So, there’s that. And everything wasn’t all peachy when I dropped you off at the ferry, you know. You acted sort of distant, and that made me feel weird. And when you texted, you were all matter-of-fact, so I was all matter-of-fact. And as far as what I was doing earlier today before work, I have a monthly appointment that I can’t miss. Like, no excuses. And after my appointment, I was feeling better and more confident about everything, but then I got to work, and you were hiding from me. So . . . there you go.”

Oh.

Huh.

He’d said . . . a lot. And I was sorting it all out in my head, but it was taking too long, and I kept getting stuck on the appointment thing; I doubted it was for a mandatory pedicure. But before I could think too much about it, he was pulling over to the curb in front of a Pioneer Square restaurant crowned with neon dragons, so I just said, “You weren’t sorry we went out?”

Daniel shifted the van into park. “Even with the drama, it was the best date I’ve ever had.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“It was the only date I’ve ever had, but it was still the best.”